Over the decades, Lois has been a symbol both forandagainst feminism; while she is a career woman (an Intrepid Reporter) who speaks her mind and goes for the big scoop regardless of danger, she has also been the object of mockery for not noticing that her fellow reporter Clark Kent is Superman. On this front she is normally joined by Clark Kent's other close friends, but she is closer to either of them than anyone else who does not know they are the same, and even in Lois and Clark where she does figure out the fact that Clark Kent is Superman before he tells her, she has made out with him on at least one occasion under both identities before that. She also gets marked down by some since she is constantly getting in trouble that she needs to be rescued from. However at least in some incarnations this often involves her as a bold, fearless attacker who will grab whatever large object is around and go after the local evil force, at times when such a force is in the process of defeating Superman without the use of Kryptonite.

During The Silver Age of Comic Books, Lois had her own series, titled Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. Which lasted for 137 issues, from March-April, 1958 to September-October, 1974. In this series, which had a more humorous tone, Lois became a shrew who constantly tried to prove that Clark was Superman on the assumption that he would *have* to marry her then. Instead of, you know, simply courting him the regular way. (Note that Superman himself was openly courting her, but Lois apparently felt that she still needed to prove herself smarter than him. No wonder she became a target of his Super Dickery so often. It should also be noted that this was how most superhero love interests flew anyway). To be fair, they DID truly love each other, both just had a lot of quirks to overcome.

Eventually, an adult version of the character of Lana Lang (originally created to serve the same role as Lois but in the Superboy series) also joined the cast, in order to force Superman into a Love Triangle (though Lana had pretty much the same personality as Lois, making you feel even sorrier for him.)

Other stories had Lois fall in relationships with other superheroes, including (in one Time Travel story) Superman's own father, Jor-El. Mostly she was just trying to make him jealous, or just happened to attract the attention of other Superman-like characters. Those stories always ended with Lois and Superman back in their original situation by the end, often because the Romantic False Lead turned out to be evil/a shape-shifting ameoba/from a planet with a toxic atmosphere/all of the above. Sometimes she became a superhero herself, also only briefly.

By the 1970s, her series attempted to modernize: Lois no longer tried to rope Superman into a wedding, dressed less conservatively and the stories tackled more serious subjects. Unfortunately, one of them was racial injustice, which it tried to explore by... having Lois be transformed into a Black woman for one day. While the intention was good, the story felt very awkward, especially towards the end when she asked Superman if he would still love her if she never changed back. Eventually, the title, along with Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl, was folded into Superman Family, where Lois got to strut her stuff in her own stories as a BadassAction GirlIntrepid Reporter who managed to get the big scoops while taking down bad guys without Superman's help being necessary.

Lois was eventually allowed to finally marry Superman; the first time, it was the original Lois Lane (the one from the 1940s comics) since that version was declared to exist in a Parallel Universe and was not the "current" version. Ironically, in this story Superman (due to a magic spell) forgets he's a superhero and marries Lois as Clark Kent. But then she discovers he's really Superman and helps him regain his memory. She expects him to declare the marriage null, but instead, he marries her again, this time as Superman (in a private ceremony.)

The modern Lois also got to marry Superman in the 1990s, first in the TV show Lois and Clark and then in the comics. This was the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version, who was the 1970s version only more so. Most notably, her relationship (before she learnt his identity) was clearly with Clark, not Superman, in keeping with the Post-Crisis Superman's belief that "Superman is what I do, Clark Kent is who I am". There had been elements of this in the Bronze Age, but it was still mostly presented as "Lois is dating Clark because she suspects he's Superman". As of the New 52 reboot, Lois is no longer married to Clark, and is dating someone else.

Neither marriage had children, so far (except for their son in Superman Returns). You also could count the adoption of Christopher Kent, a young Kryptonian boy who turned out to be the son of General Zod.

Lois continues to be an inextricable part of the Superman mythos and appears in virtually every version of the character, be it comics, movies or animation.

Lois Lane gives us:

Action Girl: The modern version. She got smarter, too. This is chiefly due to the character of Sam Lane, her father, being written as a military man who wanted a son, and trained her like a boy.

Alliterative Name: It let to the trend of every important woman in Superman's life having the initials "LL".

Badass: Very much so. She's a crusading idealist who works as a reporter to bring down corrupt elements, and she's got the martial arts skills to back up her idealism. Lois is frequently shown to be courageous and often refuses to be intimidated by supervillains, resulting in several CMOA's for her over the years, one notable one being in Superman Unbound when Brainiac is monologueing about how insignificant Earth and it's people seem to him, and Lois responds simply by giving Brainiac the finger, much to his confusion.

Berserk Button: Don't insult, use Kryptonite on, or otherwise hurt Superman in front of Lois. You're talking about an unpowered human who has Seen It All and is not intimidated even by the likes of Lex Luthor and The Joker. You do not want to be on the wrong end of her Undying Loyalty to the Man of Steel.

Betty and Veronica: To Superman, except she and Lana were both The Veronica. More recently, Lana's Betty and Lois is Veronica, when there's a question of it at all (for example, Smallville).

Big Bra to Fill: Lois is traditionally played by actors who are petite and lean, with the exception of Smallville. (See: Noel Neill, Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Dana Delaney.) This despite the fact that Lois, uh.... developed◊ a bit in the modern era.

Brainy Brunette/Fiery Redhead: She has both the brains and the attitude and has been depicted as both over the years, though jet black hair is her most common look.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: To a mild degree; a running gag throughout several of the media she's appeared in has her, despite her fame and success as a newspaper journalist, be absolutely terrible at spelling.

Chickification: The Silver Age incarnation. After the more intrepid Golden Age incarnation, conservative values influenced by The Comics Code set in, so she went from being a somewhat bitter rival to Clark to being more focused on getting Superman to marry her.

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the Golden Age comics, Lois had a young niece named Susie Thompkins, whose shtick was getting into trouble by telling fibs. Susie's last appearance was in the mid-50s; a few years later, Lois' (unmarried) sole sibling Lucy Lane was introduced, and Susie was never seen again, save a few appearances in the "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" stories of The Seventies. There, she's shown as the daughter of Earth-Two's married Lucy Lane Thompkins.

Susie has reappeared in the comics, as of 2012 - but Lucy still exists in this continuity, implying there might be a third Lane sister.

Damsel out of Distress: She provides the page image. This is a woman who gets caught by villains all the frickin' time, but only because she's Genre Savvy enough to know that if she does so, she'll not only get the scoop on the front page story, but also somehow survive to write it. And not just by getting rescued — if Superman doesn't know/is depowered/is busy, she'll pretend to fall in love with the drug lord who captured her, then blast herself out of their wedding, veil, gown, and all, with a Mook's stolen machine gun.

Even in the early days, Lois had quite the nerve. In some of the earliest Fleischer cartoons (now public domain) she pulls such stunts as trying to sabotage a getaway vehicle, climbing onto the back of a mechanical monster to see where it was going, blasting away with a submachine gun at would-be train robbers, and disguised herself as a Nazi to warn the American fleet of a U-boat threat (well, it WAS the early forties).

Military Brat: In ever since the mid-1980's reboot this has been a key part of her characterization, as it provides a backstory, a source for her Action Girl badassery, and plenty of dramatic tension between her, her strict father General Lane, and her sister Lucy (who often sides with the General over Lois). In many stories, Lois's military friends and the knowledge she gained about military protocols often come in handy for stories she's chasing as well.

Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Lois in the Modern Age and for a good portion of the 1990's and the 2000's is in love with Clark not because he is Superman, but because he is a sweet, kind-hearted farmboy from Kansas.

Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Superman and/or Clark in several incarnations. Averted during most of the 1990's and the 2000's, however, when they were together.

Vitriolic Best Buds: In those continuities were she doesn't know Clark Kent and Superman are the same (for instance the Christopher Reeve films or Superman: The Animated Series) she is usually this to Clark, enjoying a very friendly workplace rivalry with him and chastising him for his timidity. In the very early Golden Age her dislike for Clark was genuine but their relationship quickly evolved into this trope.

Xenafication: Starting at least since the late 1970s in Superman Family, when Lois starting kicking bad guy ass quite well in her solo stories without Superman around.

Younger Than They Look: Traditionally in live action adaptations Lois is played by actresses slightly older than the actor playing Clark despite the two characters being roughly the same age, or, as was the case in Donnerverse films Lois being the younger onenote A scene deleted from the theatrical cut of Superman (but present in the DVD and television cut) has a teenage Clark run pass a train with a pre-teen Lois on board.. This is probably to reflect her hardbitten, Street Smart reporter persona against Clark's farmboy naivetie.

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